Are there presentation alternatives to PowerPoint? Use #GoogleDocs and Empressr

I got tired that my students thought they could only make slideshows using Microsoft Powerpoint. Instead, I made these tutorials for them on alternative sources:

Black Water Middle Art students gathered all of their thoughts and learning processes from their recent paper mache project and I then wanted them to document and share their findings.

Tuesday P’s

I posted all of the class pictures on the Posterous site, and then shared the link via Edmodo. The students had to download at least five pictures of them working on their mask.

Giner P’s

The following week, the students received a variety of links to web 2.0 presentation software. I felt like just about any student could make a Powerpoint, but I thought they could instead create a narration for their findings and then embed the slideshow into the class wall on Edmodo.

Brent C’s

Even though I posted about seven presentation sites, the majority of the students utilized 280 Slides, Empressr and/or Google Docs (especially if they had their own Google account).  

Trenton and Daniel’s

Unfortunately, I feel that a majority of the students were too distracted looking at all of the pictures and/or working with the software was a little hard for them to work with. I created some tutorials to use 280 Slides and Empressr which you can find on a recent post in MY POSTEROUS site so that you can create your own presentation and post it on Edmodo.

Matt R’s

Overall, I really liked the software. I would probably ONLY allow the students to use Empressr next time, as you can create embeddable slideshows into your favorite web site along with a narration. The narration can automatically go through the show so it automatically advances.

Listed below, you can view some of the slideshows and share in on their findings

Patience-

Caleb and Nick –

Samantha H Jonnie – Alexis – Austin – Taylor –

regina –

 

jenny h – jacob/damon- demonte- maria p – braeden- Tyler C –   Rebbekah H – Kamryn L –

How can you make an online presentation with Empressr?

If you would like to use the site 280 Slides you can make an online presentation and turn it into an embeddable piece of work on your favorite web site. The site is really easy to use, all you need to do is plug in an email (won’t have to check it) and you can make a simple presentation that can be embedded into a site or downloaded as a Powerpoint/PDF file.   (No audio allowed though).

Watch my video tutorial below to find out how:

You can watch this video to find out how to login/register for a new account, upload your pictures, create new slides, type out your info and then embed it into your favorite web site such as Edmodo

 

Empressr is also a great online presentation site. It is also free, but just takes a bit more info when you start to register. What I like about it better is that you can animate your slideshow and create narrations that can automatically go through the whole presentation. Afterwards, you can embed the slideshow into your favorite site, but it is a bit trickier (watch video #3 to understand why)

 

Tutorial 1 – You can view this tutorial to find out how to create/register for an account. Afterwards, it is simple on how to upload your pictures, create new slides and even use your web cam for narrations or take pics/video of you.

Tutorial 2- After you make your voice narrations, you need to know how to edit and insert them. I also provide some tips on how you can get your slideshow to automatically play with the narrations like a smooth movie. Finally, at the end, I show you how to save, but don’t worry about the embed code part…..

Tutorial 3 – Turns out there are issues when just “embedding” your presentation from Empressr when you are all done. There is a trick that you got to do in order to use the embed code from your main “my empressrs” page. View this video to find out how to publish your video to Edmodo